DOBRA VODA WON GOLD FOR BEST SPARKLING WATER AT BERKELEY SPRINGS

National.

Macedonian sparkling water, Dobra Voda won the gold medal for best sparkling water. Water from all over the world was tasted and tested this weekend in Berkeley Springs, USA and a defending champion from Ohio topped a pair of Canadian waters to win undisputed Best Tap Water in the World.

Winning sparkling waters were all international entries, with Dobra Voda of Kratovo, Macedonia, taking the gold, and previous gold-medal winner Canadian Gold of Marchand, Manitoba, coming in second.

Hamilton, Ohio, the 2009 winner of Best U.S. Tap Water, came out on top at the 20th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting, according to a news release.

Judged Best Bottled Water in the World was Ecoviva, from Roscommon, Mich., which also boasted a 100 percent biodegradable bottle. The silver was won by Eldorado Natural Spring Water, of Eldorado Springs, Colo. International entrants included for the first time water from Brazil and China, as well as entries from New Zealand, Macedonia, Italy, Japan, Bosnia and Ecuador. A total of 49 bottled waters were tasted.

Arthur von Wiesenberger, author and founder of BottledWaterWeb.com, once again served as the event's watermaster.

"This is the longest running and largest water tasting in the world," he said, "the granddaddy of them all."

The crowd was interested in the peoples' choice packaging competition, where the overwhelming favorite was the silvered column of Bling from Los Angeles. "We're especially pleased with their win since they have our gold medal on the bottle," said Jeanne Mozier, one of the event founders.

Conclusion of the daylong water tasting is the famed "water rush," where the audience is invited to take home hundreds of bottles of water sent as part of the judging. "I spent about nine hours arranging all the waters in a display," said Mozier with a laugh. "The crowd spent less than 10 minutes making it all disappear."

The dozen media judges selected by Klein Rone from print, radio and the Web were instructed by von Wiesenberger to look, sniff and taste each water under guidelines like those in a wine tasting. The waters were rated for each attribute including appearance, aroma (there should be none), taste, how it feels in your mouth and its aftertaste. Waters were tasted in four separate flights over two days.